The act of “tagging” has greatly increased due to the increase in social networking and use of desktop software. During tagging, a user assigns a tag, such as a word or phrase, to a document, image, or Web page to “mark” the item with an identifying concept. For example, in social networking, users commonly post and tag photographs of themselves and friends using a tag as an identifier for the people in the picture, such as by name, nickname, or user name. The tag provides metadata for the marked item and once assigned, can be used for quickly determining a topic of the document or for identification and retrieval, such as through search queries based on the tag.
However, conventional tags are sparsely defined, coarse, and ambiguous. Currently, conventional tagging systems are unable to effectively and efficiently distinguish between homonyms, which have different meanings for the same tag, or combine synonyms, which include multiple tags for the same concept. For example, a tag with the word “java” can refer to coffee, an island, or programming language. Without further information, a user or tagging system is unable to determine the meaning of the tag.
Further, the assignment of tags is usually subjectively determined by a user, which can result in an assigned tag that may not accurately reflect a topic of a document or that is not understandable by other users. For instance, a user marks a picture of a baby with a tag that provides the name of the baby's mother. The user knows that the tagged person is the mother; however, another user may believe that the tag refers to the baby. In another example, a user assigns a tag “Section IV-Research” to a document regarding sickle cell anemia. The user assigns the particular tag because he is working on a paper about genetic disorders and wants to identify the section of the paper that will cite the document. However, the tag is likely to be misunderstood or confusing to another user. Therefore, conventional tags are limited in use and may only be beneficial for the creator of the tags.
Thus, a system and method for providing context for a tag, such that similar tags can be distinguished, is needed. Preferably, the tags are refined without requiring retagging of documents.